CHARITY BAY RACE - APRIL 1, 2001
The Epilepsy Foundation Charity Bay race was Team CIA's first race as a crew and, to say the least, it was eventful.
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It started a little bit rough as the time change gave owner/jib trimmer Russ Chandler one less hour to get everything together for the race. This state of frenzy caused him to accidentally drop a piece of the roller furling spool into the water at the dock. Instinctively, he reached his arm into the water but it had already fallen just out of reach. Without any thought to the lack of any backup clothing or the contents of his pockets, he lunged his entire body into the water, and captured the piece before it could sink to the bottom. A frenzy to get dry in time for departure from port while still preparing the race rigging would ensue. This was not going to be an average race day. Several crewmembers arrived early to help, though, and he was able to dry himself off soon enough to get away on time. |
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The course started in San Diego Bay, just in front of the
star of India. Then it rounded channel buoy number 21 to starboard
and then markers "C" and "B" leaving both to
starboard. It then rounded channel buoy 23 and 21 again to
starboard. Finally, it rounded marker "B" again to starboard and
finally channel buoy 19 which was left to part, finishing between channel
buoy 17 and the race committee boat.
Here is a map that Kit drew of course and listing of boats in our class. |
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Thanks to the brilliant tactics of helmsman/tactician Anthony Covelli, we were able to get off to an excellent start, just below the starting mark. We were able to gain an early lead on the other boats in our class. Unfortunately, we were not as tight on the first leg as we could have been and so the other boats, most notably, an S&S 51 boat named "Brushfire," which shared our 54 rating, got slightly ahead of us. We were also having trouble keeping up with "Shockwave", a C&C 37 boat. |
We had a good rounding and caught and passed Brushfire on the downwind leg and were ahead of them after the douse.
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Things got dicey, however, as Brushfire attempted to squeeze between us and the downtown pier. While on a starboard tack we were approached by Brushfire who had gained momentum in our direction after tacking to Port to avoid the pier. Words were exchanged as they refused to turn down and we were hit by Brushfire. After the collision, many of us were quite upset over what had occurred. We fell off quite a bit but then collected ourselves and caught up again. |
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We got our wits back after a little while and by the last rounding we were well on our way. The crew performed brilliantly on the final leg and we got the gun, more than four minutes ahead of the next boat, Shockwave! |
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When we arrived at the yacht club, we were entertained by snakes and tortoises as we waited to hear the results. We listened as our nemesis "Brushfire" was given third prize, and "Nomad", a Newport 41, came in second. I wondered what had happened to Shockwave because I was sure they were the next ones to cross after us. Then, they announced Shockwave as the winner. We were stunned and bewildered. |
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Anthony immediately went to talk with the race committee while Jimmy and I went and sought out the crew of Brushfire to discuss the other matter. It turned out that our sail number had not been recorded before the race and so when we crossed and got the gun, the committee did not immediately realize that sail number 49633 was "Changes in Altitudes." After further review and calculation, we were declared the winner of our class by 63 seconds over Shockwave. |
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The four remaining crewmembers finally got to celebrate the
victory!
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